Vintage and Retro Gaming Magazines

Well before the internet, gaming magazines were our only source of reviews, information, walkthroughs, technical knowledge, previews, interviews and, thankfully, much more. Magazines such as Crash, Computer Gaming World and Nintendo Power defined more than one gaming generations and, well, wouldn't it be lovely and deeply nostalgic in our so-very-digital age to once again go through their pages? Yes, it would and this section of Gnome's Lair is dedicated to the freely available digitized computer & video gaming mags of yore and where to find them. Sadly, it lacks an interesting and/or witty introduction; it will constantly be updated though.

The Out of Print archive is another stunning place indeed. It's filled with high quality scans of some of the very best old game magazines, among which you'll find: N64 Magazine, Raze, PC Player, Super Play, Dreamcast Magazine, Sega Pro and DC-UK.

Compute!, a rather more serious take on the then-emerging digital scene, was first published in 1979 and featured content mostly on the Commodore PET and the 6502 processor. The complete magazine archive from 1979 to 1994 is available here. Yes, all 168 issues of it!

ZZap 64!, the everlasting pride of the Commodore 64 community and one of the best gaming mags ever, is available in its (almost) full glory here. Though you wont get every article of every issue, there’s more than enough scanned and html-ed (?) content to keep every misty-eyed 8-bit connoisseur off the streets. Besides, content is being added regularly.

Just as C64 replaced the PET, an time came when the 16-bit powerhouse that was the Amiga replaced the C64. Tons of magazines were published, gamers were having multiple orgasms and the utterly amazing Amiga Magazine Rack is the place were everything is kept safely for your free retro pleasure. 70 classic mags are covered, including The One, Zero, Amiga Action, Amiga Computing and Amiga Joker!

Computer Gaming World, a PC favorite that's still going strong, has recently opened the gates to its virtual museum. Visit it here and download the first 100 issues in glorious PDF.

Atari ST gamers and users can, on the other hand, pay a visit to the ST Magazine Archive. It already sports issues of Ace and The One and is regularly getting updates and new scans.

The Lucasarts Adventurer wasn't exactly a gaming mag, but it definitely felt like one and can still be downloaded for free over at the aptly named Lucasarts Adventurer blog.

People that preferred Sierra On Line's offerings will of course be thrilled to find out that Sierra InterAction is also available in all its PDF glory.

Mean Machines along with Mean Machines Sega and delicious bits of other classic British gaming mags have their very own, very retro archive right here. Visit it and find out exactly how the best console magazine ever to grace our puny planet looked like.

Oh, and don't forget to register and have a look at Retromags. You'll find quite a selection of UK and US mags and an utterly impressive archive of Nintendo Power, Dreamcast Monthly, EGM, Game Informer and Turbo Play issues. Official Saturn Magazine groupies won't be disappointed either. Actually, nobody will be disappointed as a huge selection of US, UK, European, Japanese and South American are also available.

The excellent Your Sinclair Rock 'n' Roll Years site will, among other goodies, allow you to browse through the complete archive of the iconic Your Sinclair magazine that made ZX Spectrum owners happy.

As for Speccy lovers that preferred the legendary Crash magazine, look no further than Crash: The Online Edition. Besides covering 98 issues of the thing, the site also sports some interesting extras and even some Kindle content!

And just to prove that updates will keep on appearing to this list, let me happily guide you to a pretty amazing BYTE Magazine archive. It's pretty brilliant, it is.

Click Video Magazine was a lovely oddity and a pretty unique VHS-based gaming magazine that was published in the UK and only managed two issues. You can watch the first one here and the second here.